An Aurora City Council committee has recommended a conditional use planned development for a new church at 2020 Church Road on the city’s East Side.
The conditional use would give the property zoning for religious purposes so the Christ Pentecostal International Church can build a church on vacant land next to an existing house, which would become the church’s parsonage.
The church has a contract to buy the land from another church, “but before we proceed with the purchase, we need to get that zoning in place for religious use,” said Robert McNeese, a Carol Stream-based attorney representing Christ Pentecostal.
The City Council Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee on Wednesday unanimously recommended the conditional use zoning.
While such a conditional use is usually accompanied by specific plans for the development, McNeese said that would come later.
“We’re not at the point where we’re proposing any plans because we don’t own the property,” he said.
The land was first purchased for a church in 2004 by Living Stones Christian Church. While the city intended to rezone the property then for a church, it never did, said Edward Sieben, the city’s planning and zoning director.
Before moving ahead at the site, Living Stones went into a former furniture store along Lake Street in Aurora, where it still is located today. But it has retained ownership of the land on Church Road all this time.
Sieben said Christ Pentecostal wants to buy the land and “build a church in keeping with what it was originally going to be.”
The Rev. Gideon Agbo, of the Christ Pentecostal church, told committee members he intends to use the house that is already there as a parsonage.
slord@tribpub.com